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Harold Boas
Harold Boas
Born	27 September 1883; Adelaide, South Australia
Died	17 September 1980 (aged 96); Subiaco, Western Australia
Nationality	Australian
Occupation	Architect
Years active	1899–1974
Spouse	Elizabeth née Cohen
Parent	Abraham Tobias Boas
Relatives	Isaac Herbert Boas; Lionel Tobias Boas

Harold Boas OBE (27 September 1883 – 17 September 1980) was a town planner and architect in Western Australia. Boas designed many public buildings in and around Perth and was an influential Jewish community leader.^[1] He served as an elected member of the Perth City Council on three separate occasions, presided over the Metropolitan Town Planning Commission and was the foundation president of the Town Planning Institute of Western Australia.

Biography

Early life

Boas was born on 27 September 1883 in Adelaide, South Australia, the third son of noted Minister and Rabbi, Abraham Tobias Boas (1842–1923) and his wife Elizabeth, née Solomon. After being educated at Whinham College^[2] and Prince Alfred College he was apprenticed to architect Edward Davies between 1899 and 1904 and later studied at the South Australian School of Mines and Industries.

Move to Perth

In June 1905 he moved to Perth where he initially joined architects M. F. Cavanagh & Austin Bastow and later Oldham, Boas, Ednie-Brown & Partners with whom he stayed for many years.

On 29 March 1911 Boas married Sadie ("Sarah") Cohen at the Brisbane Street Synagogue in Perth.^[3]

Architecture

With his partners, Boas designed many public and private buildings around Perth including the open-aired King's Picture Theatre (1905), the Nedlands Park Hotel (1907), Radio station 6WF (1924), Edith Dircksey Cowan Memorial (1934), the Emu Brewery (1938),^[4] the Adelphi Hotel, London Court (1937), the Gledden Building (1938) and Temple David (1954, 1963, 1973).^[5]

Public life

Boas served on the Perth City Council during 1914–16, 1926–42 and 1944, representing the South Ward. He was chairman of the State government's Metropolitan Town Planning Commission from 1928 to 1930 and was a member of the Town Planning Association of Western Australia from 1914. Boas chaired the City of Perth's town planning committee in 1930–33 and 1938–42, and was foundation president of the Town Planning Institute of Western Australia in 1931. He was an inaugural member of the State division of the Town Planning Institute of Australia.

In 1932 Boas stood unsuccessfully for the Western Australian Legislative Council as an anti-secessionist candidate during the debate prior to the 1933 secession referendum.

He founded and edited the Australian Jewish Outlook, a short lived anti-Zionist monthly, in May 1947. However, the periodical went out of circulation after little more than a year as Boas had overestimated the level of support for it.^[6]

He was president of the local branch of the United Nations Association, representing Australia and the Executive Council of Australian Jewry at the United Nations conference in Bangkok in 1950.